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Treading New Ground: Swimming At Iceland’s New Lava Field
There are few things more exciting than waking up in Iceland with a full day of travel ahead. As I pull open the blinds of a bedroom at Akureyri Backpackers—lodgings so comfortable that the term “hostel” seems ungenerous—I’m overjoyed to see the…
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VIDEO: A Road Trip Around Iceland’s Route One
Here’s the latest film by Timothée Lambrecq, the French videographer who spent the summer with us here at Grapevine. Taken on a road trip around the country’s Route One ring road, the film shows foggy mountain ranges, black beaches, crystal-blue icebergs, mossy…
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The All-New Travel Adventures Of The Reykjavík Grapevine
Hello, reader, and welcome to the brand new—and extremely FANCY— Reykjavík Grapevine travel site! We’ve been working on this thing for freakin’ ages—especially our programmer Jón Ben, who’s spent many long nights slaving over a hot laptop, burning the midnight wi-fi and…
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Meet The Ninja Team
As Bryndís’s Facebook event snowballed, the “Kæra Eygló” initiative received a wave of attention from various groups. Along with heightened positive interest from concerned and energised Icelanders—and the worldwide media—the page also caught the attention of various online anti-immigration/refugee/Muslim groups, who launched…
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6 New Icelandic Bands To Watch Out For At Airwaves
As well as being a monolithic highlight on the city’s festival calendar, Iceland Airwaves also functions as a kind of informal annual survey of what’s good in the Icelandic music scene. Unusually, native bands make up the majority of the lineup, giving…
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Wow Nice! Airwaves Is Coming! Epic 297-Track Mixtape!
With the full lineup announced and tickets selling fast, it’s now less than two months until the annual 101-wide party of Iceland Airwaves blows into town. We at the Reykjavík Grapevine are partnering once again with the festival in 2015, which means…
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Welcome To Iceland: A Walk-Through Of The Refugee Arrival Process
When Iceland receives new refugees, the Red Cross plays a crucial and central role. Working alongside the various municipalities and government ministries, their mission starts a long time in advance as they train new volunteers to aid the refugees’ arrival, along with…
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Good Week For Aurora Spotters
The coming of the dark nights heralds the end of summer, but it’s also the time that the flickering aurora becomes visible in the sky over Iceland. Last night, on the night of the equinox, there was a big display of northern…
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Corbyn’s UK Win: Another Reminder That Change Is Possible, Possibly Already Happening
In the 20 years that I’ve been eligible to vote, there has been a convergence, from both left and right wing political parties, on the centre ground. The received wisdom, from at least the Blairite ’90s onwards, has stated that unvarnished left-wing…
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“We Have To Do This Together”: Mayor Dagur B. On Acceepting “Hundreds” Of Refugees
In the light of Icelanders’ recent groundswell in favour of accepting more Syrian refugees, Reykjavík’s mayor, Dagur B. Eggertsson, was recently quoted as saying that the city is prepared to accept “hundreds” of new refugees. Curious, we called him up to gain…
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PHOTOS: Akureyri Town Festival
For a town of around 18,000, Akureyri punches far above its weight when it comes to cultural output. Each year, on the last weekend of August, this peaceful northern Iceland town celebrates its official birthday with a festival. The many galleries of…
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Wow! Iceland Qualifies For Euro 2016! ‘Success Is No Fluke’ Say Footie Veterans
Yes! With a goalless draw against Kazakhstan earlier tonight, the Icelandic men’s national football team made history, qualifying for the 2016 UEFA European Championship. Yup, the dudes are going Euro – for the first time ever (note, as some of our readers…
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VIDEO: Whale Watching In Reykjavík Harbour
Grapevine’s resident filmmaker Timothée Lambrecq has continued to tour around Iceland over recent weeks. From looking at the working lives of fishermen in the Westfjords to documenting a road trip through the Icelandic landscape, he’s made some beautiful work documenting his stay.…
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Being HERE: Using Art To Revitalise Their Town
As the road winds its way around one particularly dramatic section of the Eastfjords towards the remote village of Stöðvarfjörður, one building leaps out from across the narrow fjörd. On the shoreline, just metres from the choppy sea, sits a hulking industrial…
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A Shadow In The Dark
Earlier in 2015, at the Sónar Reykjavík festival, a solo musician known simply as Hekla walked out into the dimly lit crucible of Harpa’s Kaldalón theatre. Beginning to play wordlessly in near-darkness, and using just her voice, a couple of effects pedals…
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VIDEO: A Fishing Nation
Grapevine’s resident videographer Timothée Lambrecq and his brother Camille took a road trip to Ísafjörður recently, hoping to make a film about the day to day lives of Iceland’s fishermen. The two went down to the docks in Bolungarvík at 5:30am, where…
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The Museum Of Hidden Beings
One night in 1846, a trader named Sigtryggur Sigurðsson was walking his usual route home along the beach from Húsavík, when he saw something strange approaching. A large humanoid creature of a type he’d never seen was sprinting towards him from the…
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VIDEO: The Road To Ísafjörður
Our favourite (only, true – but still favourite) videographer Timothée Lambrecq went on a trip around Iceland with his brother recently. They went all over the country, and the intrepid duo duly filmed the whole thing. See the first video to be…
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Iceland’s National Sport: Football On The Edge Of The World
On a recent grey and drizzly summer evening, the streets of downtown Reykjavík were oddly empty. But other than the unseasonal weather, there was perhaps another factor in the quietness. Just outside of the downtown area, by the domestic airport, over 1000…
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Björk Cancels Airwaves & Other Festival Dates
Sad news for Björk fans came out today. The singer has cancelled a series of live dates, including the Pitchfork Festival in Paris, La Route Du Rock in France and Iceland Airwaves. The reason given for the cancellation was a scheduling conflict,…
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PHOTOS: Petra’s Stone Collection
Petra’s Stone Collection is a museum of minerals and crystals collected by the late Ljósberg Petra María Sveinsdóttir, who lived in the small town of Stöðvarfjörður, population 200. Petra used to roam the hills surrounding the town looking for crystals, minerals and…
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Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea: Farao’s New Sound
Kari Jahnsen, aka Farao, sits in a downtown Reykjavík cafe on a typically unsettled Icelandic day. We’re chatting amiably over coffee and watching people slide down Laugavegur through the frozen snow, when suddenly a violent downpour of hailstones begins, rattling the windows…
